By Ding Long

Having been in office for over a month, the Biden administration has taken a series of moves in the Middle East targeting both its rivals and allies in the region, which has more clearly revealed Washington's policy of bringing its Middle East diplomacy back to the track set in Obama's term. Yet, the approach it has taken obviously deviates from its end and may very well lead to the opposite of what it has in mind.

The current signs indicate that Biden and his team have a mind to overhaul Trump's diplomatic policy in the Middle East.

First, it will make full use of institutions. The new administration makes a point of giving play to the diplomatic and defense departments as well as official mechanisms. It also takes advantage of international multilateral platforms to solve the Middle East issues, as shown by the plan to kick off a meeting of the Iran nuclear deal participants soon.

Second, it will implement a rebalancing strategy. The White House is now committed to reshuffling the balance of power in the Middle East to make major forces balance and check each other so that it can invest less energy in the region and play as an off-shore "balancer" and "arbitrator".

Third, it will return to value-oriented diplomacy .

At a macro-level, the Biden administration pursues diverse and compound national interests in the Middle East and wants to maintain its regional clout with decreased input.

But such a tactic doesn't have much chance of succeeding given the current regional situation, including deepened conflicts between factions and religious sects, worse security dilemma, and the rapid change of inter-state relations.

For one thing, Biden's Middle East policy will be restricted in many ways. Washington has never slackened its pressuring on Tehran even when it is trying to restart the nuclear deal negotiations, and the difficulty to "tame" the country has tied its hands in specific moves. Meanwhile, its Saudi Arabia policy also reveals Washington' scruples about taking any aggressive action in the region. For Riyadh, the release of the investigation report on the Jamal Khashoggi case was the second boot falling, and it sees through the US' intentions so well that Biden's "pressuring" is superficial at best without any substantive effect.

For another, Biden's Middle East approach is traditional and outdated that, for the moment, seems to aim at nothing more than restoring Obama's diplomatic legacy in the region, which means a major breakthrough like the establishment of diplomatic ties between UAE and Israel is basically out of the question. It must be noted that Obama's Middle East policy was far from being successful. During Obama's term, the Iranian nuclear issue was not effectively resolved, and the US was estranged from its regional allies. A resumption of the nuclear deal, as is pushed by the Biden administration now, will trigger chain effects in the region and disrupt America's relations with its regional allies, which goes counter to its diplomatic objective of relying on its alliance network.

Moreover, value-oriented diplomacy has never succeeded in the Middle East in history, and any attempt to repeat that path today would seem stubborn and dogmatic. What's worse, America's capricious Middle East policy will directly affect regional security and stability, as well as expose the faction-cleaved region to greater risks if all Washington can think about is which side to pick rather than how to build a security institution there.

(The author is a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute (MESI) of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).)

Editor's note: This article is originally published on huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.